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Sue Kenney's purpose in life is to inspire people to think differently. To infuse ideas, fun and spirit into the way one can live their life, whether it is personal or business. As an author/storyteller, mother, entrepreneur, athlete, pilgrim, teacher and inspirational speaker, Sue imparts knowledge offering valuable life lessons and experiences together with pragmatic elements to provide funny and entertaining stories of inspiration in both the CD and her first book, Sue Kenney's My Camino ISBN 097341863X Available at book stores in Canada and the US or at www.suekenney.ca/home Testimonial: Samantha, This is truly moving for me to read. My gratitude goes to you for your honest words. It's truly inspiring to me. I stopped writing about my knee in my diary and in the book. It was as though it healed on its own and then it was a concern at all. Funny, I wonder if I kept all my fear in my knee and once I had faced it, there was no need to experience the pain of it. It wasn't intentional to leave it out. It just happened that way. About the glow....I am not sure what happened to me on the Camino. I was definately touched in some way and the end result of that still has to unfold. I am different than before I left and there is no doubt that people are drawn to me. I just accept it. I don't judge people or the situation I am in. My compassion for all people has evolved through awareness. I am so completely grateful for everything that is in my life. Sometimes I wonder if it's all a dream. Now I will go on tour across the country in the fall. My book is on promotion in every Chapters and Indigo in Canada so I will visit as many as possible to sign books. I know by your note that this is the right path for me. Thank you again. Buen Camino, Sue http://www.suekenney.ca Samantha Corbett wrote: Hi Sue, I've met you a few times in the Whistle stop while visiting my mother in Washego. The first time was last year I think. I was drawn to your display of CDs immediately. I purchased your CD after a lovely conversation with you and waited until I was home in Rockton to listen to it when no one was home. I loved it. I loved it so much I couldn't wait to share it with my friends. I happened to go out to lunch with a friend the next day and brought her the CD and a stone. I told her she should keep them and I'd get another. Well it seemed every time I got up north after that it was on a Sunday and your store was closed. I thought about your CD so much. I couldn't remember all the details of the stories but l loved the way it made me feel and how it inspired me to look at life a little differently. I thank you for this.This summer I stopped into the Group of Five in Washego, and again I was drawn to your book. It's funny because I don't read very much lately but I was looking forward to two things on my vacation. One was to listen to your CD again and the other was to get lost in a book. The friendly person at the gallery explained that the book was written by you and I should visit your store. I don't know if the lady could tell, but I just about squealed with delight when she said it was about your walk on the Camino. I told her I'd purchase it at the store since I wanted to buy some more CD's for Christmas gifts.I purchased your book and a few CDs in your store later in the week and read the book in a few days. I loved it. I hated for it to end. But I love the way you ended it. I need to know more about that feather now. I hope you share your experiences with us again in either a CD or another Book. Oh and I was wondering about your knee, you stopped writing about it after your miracle. Is this because you focussed on other details of your journey to write about or did your knee start to feel better? Just wondering.While reading your book I thought to myself about the profound things that happen to you. What I mean is how your friend told you she sent you angels, and how your coach told you things that seemed to be meant for your Camino more than rowing. Then the dream and the feather of course. These things just don't happen to everyone I thought. I had spoken to you a few times at your store and for a moment at the market, and I've noticed how you have a sort of glow about you. Not literally of course, but you draw people in somehow. I wondered if it's just you because you are a special person or is it all of us that have profound things happen to us and we just don't allow ourselves to notice them. We dismiss them because we're too busy to listen. I think your glow is your spirit. It's awakened somehow and it shines. You've inspired me open my spirit to possibilities. I feel I'm forever changed, and if I forget or get lost on my journey I just have to listen to your CD to keep me focussed. Thank you Sue, Samantha Corbett October 2004 Samantha, This is truly moving for me to read. My gratitude goes to you for your honest words. It's truly inspiring to me. I stopped writing about my knee in my diary and in the book. It was as though it healed on its own and then it was a concern at all. Funny, I wonder if I kept all my fear in my knee and once I had faced it, there was no need to experience the pain of it. It wasn't intentional to leave it out. It just happened that way. About the glow....I am not sure what happened to me on the Camino. I was definately touched in some way and the end result of that still has to unfold. I am different than before I left and there is no doubt that people are drawn to me. I just accept it. I don't judge people or the situation I am in. My compassion for all people has evolved through awareness. I am so completely grateful for everything that is in my life. Sometimes I wonder if it's all a dream. Now I will go on tour across the country in the fall. My book is on promotion in every Chapters and Indigo in Canada so I will visit as many as possible to sign books. I know by your note that this is the right path for me. Thank you again. Buen Camino, Sue Kenney October 2004 My Miracle on Cebreiro Written by Sue Kenney March 2002 When I started the pilgrimage, I had written in my diary that I wanted to accomplish two things on the Camino, besides the fact that I was walking 780 kms alone. I had just been made redundant at a large corporate IT company, and walked out the door with a package. I had been researching the Camino and decided that I should take the opportunity to go for a long walk, while I could. I wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to be alone and to have a spiritual journey. At 45 years of age, I had a strong desire to find my purpose in life. To gain an understanding of myself and what I could contribute to the world at large, to the universe. Having spent 20 years in a marriage that broke up, with 3 teen aged daughters, over 20 years in the Telecom industry along with other significant life events, I had lost the sense of who I was. I think it is affectionately called mid-life crisis! Secondly, I wanted to have a love affair with myself. Really, I had forgotten how to love myself, feeling that I had given so much love away I didn't have any left for myself. Each day on the Camino, I would practice what it might be like to love myself. I would walk tall, opening my heart to the love of the universe. I would pretend that I loved myself imagining how one might look after themselves, if they were in love. When I met people, I tried to take their love to make it a part of me or sometimes I would do nothing, just to be aware of noticing love. Then I would stop and admire the scenery along the way, again taking love from nature and the surroundings. Soon this became a discipline I focussed on all the time; to move from taking love to becoming love. Over a period of 24 days I continued this practice each morning as I started each day walking alone. When I was in Los Arcos, around the 5th day of walking, I went out for dinner in the evening with a group of pilgrims. That day I had noticed piles of stones, or rock cairns along the way. I added stones to the pile not knowing why, but wanting to be a part of this ritual. During dinner, I asked if anyone knew why there were stone piles or rock cairns along the roadside. It was the German pilgrim who told me his version of the story of the "sorrow stones". He said that if you pick up a stone and then put some of your sorrow into the stone, when you place it down you will leave your sorrow behind. Well, this idea started a new chapter in my pilgrimage. I had to make room in my heart for love and soon learned that if I could leave some of my sorrow behind, I could create more space for love. Near the end of the pilgrimage, I really wondered to myself if I had any sorrow left at all. Everyday I left sorrow behind but not just my own sorrow, I left my children's sorrow, my mother's, my sisters and many friends sorrow on the Camino. When I met pilgrims along the way who told me of their sorrow, I would secretly pick up a stone for them and leave their sorrow behind as well. It was my gift to them. Long after I returned home from Santiago, I fully realized the power of leaving sorrow behind to open oneself for love and compassion. On the 24th day, in Villa Franca I met up with the German pilgrim again. We talked all evening sharing stories of our experiences. It was through the conversation with him that I realized that I had in fact found my purpose in life: to inspire others to think differently about their lives, to be more loving. The next day we walked up Cebreiro, finishing the grueling climb at 7:30PM at night in darkness. Little did I know that it would be the following day that I was to experience the profound outcome of the discipline of learning self love. Again, I walked with the German pilgrim that day which was unusual for me because I preferred to walk alone. Often we would stop and admire the mighty mountains of Galicia, as it poured rain on us all day. It was now mid day and I had been practicing self love all morning, even as we talked. Once again, we stopped to take in the view of the mountains, this time my body was physically stirred. As I stood there with my heart open, all the love of the universe came to me in a rush. I called out with a pained moan and almost fell over, my knees buckling against the power of this love. I became afraid and in my fear quickly decided to get rid of the love in an effort to gain control. So, I moved the love away from me passing it to the closest person, the only person there, the German pilgrim. Almost instantly it came back to me with the same force. This time, although in fear, I surrendered to the Camino and it's ways. At that moment, I openly accepted this love and to my surprise, instead of becoming weaker because I gave in or surrendered, I became filled with absolute love and incredible inner strength. It was like a beam of light breaking through darkness. Through this experience I discovered that for most of my life I had tried to give love and then take it back, as two distinct actions. What I learned on Cebriero is that love is flowing, constantly alive throughout the universe; not something to give and take. I also learned that I became love through surrender. I learned that I am love and I love myself. I am forever grateful for "my miracle" on Cebriero. with love, Sue Sue Kenney, a Canadian pilgrim When I returned from Spain in December 2001, I came back to my life in the city of Toronto. I found integrating the lessons of the Camino very difficult in this environment. 6 months later, 2 of my daughters had moved in with their dad and my oldest daughter was at University in London, so I decided to move to my cottage in Floral Park on Lake Couchiching. I spent most of the winter alone writing workshops, poetry, fairy tales and stories about my life experiences. Up until this point in my life, I have never been a writer. I took a Creative Writing workshop at Ryerson, learned the basics and developed a style from there. I tried to write a book from my diary of the Camino, but couldn't get the story down the way I wanted it. Recognizing my medium is my voice, I found a recording studio at Spadina and Queen and a professional who would work with me, since I had never even been in a studio or recorded before. After some struggles disconnecting the feedback that I wasn't receiving in the studio, I finally surrendered to myself, removing all judgment and just started telling my stories. The outcome is a moving storytelling CD with inspirational anecdotes about the people and experiences I encountered on my journey. The CD is called, Stone by Stone...inspirational stories about a woman's journey to self love. It will be released early next month. Proceeds from the sale of each CD will go back to contribute to the maintenance of the hostels that house the pilgrims on the Camino. My purpose in life is to inspire people in some way so they can experience more love in every aspect. Every day I inspire people in some fashion, through the constant discipline of surrendering to universal love, to being love, giving love and receiving love. My life has changed considerably, as I live my purpose in everything that I do. Here is an article that was written by a journalist who heard me speak about my journey at a business luncheon in Brampton, Ontario. http://www.thebramptonguardian.com/br/business/story/876149p-1040874c.html And here is what another pilgrim said once he heard the CD. Testimonial: "I'd just like to say that I received Sue Kenney's CD, and took forty minutes of quality time to relax and listen to it. It surpassed all my expectations in terms of both production and quality. It echo's many a beautiful moment that Manuela and I shared together when on our Camino. And I can imagine that it will resonate well with my mother too, who's never even stepped a foot on the Camino. Manuela agrees that Sue has an angelic voice, which along with her perfect timing, and the accompaniment of relaxing music, and the occasional whisper of the wind, really makes her inspirational story a joy to listen too." Jason Young, pilgrim, London England Sue Kenney www.suekenney.ca Check out the artist's website: http://www.suekenney.ca Track List: 1. Prelude to a journey 2. Early Lessons 3. The Art of self love 4. Bernie: a legendary dog of the Camino 5. Stone by Stone 6. Pilgrim's Blessing 7. My Miracle on Cebreiro 8. The Camino ends as the journey begins Suggested CDs:Other Genres:
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